I-5 and downtown skyline, 10:53am

Seattle, at the end of 2017 was proclaimed by some to be the leader in a tight race with cities in the Southeast, as the fastest growing metro area in the US. At the beginning of 2018 62 construction cranes were swing their loads over the skyline, about 60 percent more cranes than any other U.S. city. Its hard to keep accurate current statistics but at the beginning of 2017 there were a total of 68 active construction projects underway, with a total of 110 major developments due to open in the next couple of years and dozens more on the drawing board. All this growth is providing employment for a small army of construction works and office space for some 40,000 Amazon employees among other professional workers. As a consequence of Amazon hiring and that by other companies in a burgeoning economy, the population within the city limits alone has risen by over 20 percent in the last seven years. The high paying jobs have had consequences good and bad but one thing is for sure; Seattle is no longer the provincial city tucked off in the corner of the country but has become an economic and technological powerhouse.